


things found along the road

by peachschnapps



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, OOC, major plotholes ahead, most rushed romance ever, self indulgent af
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-10 18:08:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8926957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachschnapps/pseuds/peachschnapps
Summary: "Six days. Six days she cowered in fear of an unseen enemy, patching up her wounds with the bandages left here for emergencies. She was cut off and didn’t know when backup will come. She was told that if something went wrong she had to lie low and wait; that it won’t take longer than a week. She didn’t know what was she waiting for anymore; extraction or her demise."





	1. Chapter 1

These past few days have gone by very slowly, very painfully.

November had long since begun and it seemed that the only things alive outside were the people. The sky took an ugly, greyish colour; trees were tendons of dark twisting lines more than anything else. At least this is what it looked from behind the window; she hadn’t left the safe house for almost a week.

Six days. Six days she cowered in fear of an unseen enemy, patching up her wounds with the bandages left here for emergencies. She was cut off and didn’t know when backup will come. She was told that if something went wrong she had to lie low and wait; that it won’t take longer than a week.

She didn’t know what was she waiting for anymore; extraction or her demise.

The channels HQ used were burned and encrypted messages were far too risky unless she would have to escape right away; not that she had anything to contact them anyway. She knew that and yet longed for something, anything to tell her that she wasn’t just another cross in Overwatch’s book. Another agent they had to let go. She didn’t matter much, she had no ties to them yet for them to care about her and they probably took her in because they didn’t want to let her down. She always did dream way too big and perhaps she was too naïve to think she could save the world on her own. And she didn’t want to die like that, across the street from the enemy base, without anyone knowing, waiting for something she wasn’t sure was coming.

No, if day 8 comes she’s going out with a bang.

* * *

 

She had way too much time to think here and – given the circumstances – her thoughts quickly turned ugly and depressing. With no games to distract her (the only thing anyone would consider a distraction were the books stacked in the corner of the small apartment; but even those not touched by the leak were unreadable in their state)she had nothing to do but stare at the ceiling and maybe try to fix all the things that needed fixing here. But mostly, she thought about dying. Imagined death though starvation, suicide, Talon finding her (would they find her or her mech first?) if she felt particularly miserable at the moment. At times she entertained the thought of going into their base with a homemade bomb or a pistol, or anything really, and just… doing what she does best. Cause destruction.

But for the time being she would wait.

* * *

 

There was an old radio (everything here was so early 21st century, she’s never seen so many removable batteries at once) on top of the bed when she first stumbled through the reinforced door. She hadn’t noticed it at first – the first and second day was spend entirely on resting making sure she wouldn’t die from the wounds or an infection. Once she woke up on the evening of day three, she took it to the kitchen part of the room –which consisted of an almost rotten table, an equally dangerous chair, two cupboards and an unusable sink – sat down, wincing at the pain, and took to pulling it apart - the batteries she inserted prior to this didn’t work and they seemed to be the only unused ones in here. She didn’t really have any tools to fix it but she tried to figure out what was wrong anyway. It was ancient and Hana hardly knew what to do but tried anyway.

She figured it out in the end but the last of proper tools held her back, until today. She avoided going to the tiny adjacent bathroom, mostly because of the smell from the pipes. No one paid for water or power here – this was - officially - an unused building, scheduled for demolition. Thus the smell and the overflowing toilet. She avoided solid food for this exact reason and opted for water from the bottles in the cupboards and some sugary fruit concentrate (diluted with water for variety) for the calories rather than the snack bars and canned food.

She couldn’t even take a proper shower here, eww (there were plenty of water bottles and baby wipes around so she guessed it wasn’t entirely tragic).

She went into the bathroom like she usually did – rubber slippers on, nose pinched between her two fingers - and headed for the cupboard under the sink. She explored most of the apartment as soon as she could walk without falling – kitchen cupboards held food, water, bandages, nano carriers contained in fluids, more ancient technology. The desk held a notebook and some pens – in case someone needed to leave a message she guessed – but she never bother to look into the bathroom cabinet. She always wanted to get out of there as soon as she came in.

Had she looked in there earlier, she would’ve discovered a toolkit and clean clothes.

She took everything she could use, overjoyed and a little annoyed at herself that it took her so long to search it. She cleaned up, changed the bandages and washed her hair with dry shampoo, only to discover the clothes had to be aired out for a bit before she can wear them. Her suit was not in a favourable state either, torn here and there, some bloodstains on the front and side. She had to wear her underwear and a blanket for the better part of the almost-week.

She left her bounty out on the windowsill of a next door apartment and went to work on the radio.

It was almost nightfall and all she had was the light of an old flashlight. The toolkit was basic and lacking in precision tools but it would have to do. Half an hour later (or maybe more, her perception of time was pretty wacky by now and the clock was way too far away to even bother and not to mention unreliable considering it’s batteries were dead when she arrived) the radio was starting to crack to life. She let out a half sigh, half laugh and decided it had to wait a little more – she couldn’t leave the clothes out for too long or she’d get unlucky and the rain would claim them.

The other apartments were cleaned up and way more scarce – she had trouble finding anything more than a paper roll. Not that she looked around a lot – her ribs were broken and there were shards of glass in her legs when she arrived that left her limping long after she removed them. Not to mention the bullet that found its home in her shoulder. Hana wasn’t brave or stupid enough to remove it with only action flicks as her reference. She might have been a soldier but she never did well in the first aid department. She wasn’t sure if it was a mistake on her part but she did take care of it as best as she could. She figured she didn’t do much wrong considering that she was still alive.

The clothes smelled way better by now (perhaps it took her more than half an hour after all) and changing into them made her feel like everything would be better from now on. They were too big and somewhat scratchy but – along with the radio – they felt like some sort of sign to hold on. To wait with the homemade explosives and heroic suicides. To try and hold on to life.

She took the radio to the bed, carefully avoiding the window while the flashlight was still on. Slipping underneath the blanket she turned it on again, hoping to hear a person, anyone, instead of static. It took her a while to find the proper channel but maybe when she would look back onto it she might have wished she didn’t. It wasn’t a voice: it was a message in Morse code, something she decoded to be an order for an assassination.

Hana stumbled upon a secret Talon channel.

* * *

 

Day eight never came.


	2. Chapter 2

She stayed up all night listening to the radio, decoding their messages, thinking of a plan. A rescue mission for her seemed more and more unlikely; she had to have a backup plan. It was going to be tough but the newfound information and items filled her with an unexplainable will to live. She was going to save herself, Overwatch or no.

She bought over the notepad and the pen and started writing down whatever she heard and time estimation – she had been wrong, whoever was in this room last must have been using it to listen on into those messages broadcasted by whatever Talon was called ages ago. The pages from the notebook were torn but she found some charcoal and it confirmed her suspicions. She should probably pay more attention to what the safe houses were really meant for, not just an address.

She was now armed with a huge amount of knowledge and found it laughable Talon broadcasted their secrets in Morse code - she always thought their base was a Faraday cage but it didn’t seem like it. Then again, they did buy all those buildings around their HQ and build and electric fence around the area so that was some sort of security enforcement.

She didn’t know why she kept excusing them; their security sucked. It’s hard to wrap her head around the idea that they’d never expect danger right under their nose.

Or maybe she gave herself too much credit.

It didn’t matter; she was here, she had a weapon, she could make it out alive; that’s what mattered. Her ticket to freedom was scheduled to leave at 9 PM, briefly left alone for 5 minutes before that. She had to make it in that time slot or her only way of getting out would go out like a candle. And so would her life. Yeah, she’s not letting that happen.

She considered staying in here and waiting but she’s not sure if the opportunity would come again and Overwatch probably didn’t consider this particular safe house as the one she’s hiding in. They  last contacted them right before everything went wrong, before she even got over the goddamn fence; her GPS went down way before that and she didn’t have time to fix it. They probably thought they were both dead. Overwatch won’t come. They’ll search outside the fence, they won’t risk going in without proper manpower into a fortress for someone who’s presumed dead. Not all safe houses can be searched and that’s her luck.

At least she’s alive.

The car is going to leave in a few hours, carrying someone very important to Talon. She doesn’t recognise the call sign but the clearance level and the car itself say it all. It sends chills down her spine because it could be just about anyone. She could be 2 meters away from a cold blooded assassin and she wouldn’t know.

Meanwhile she entertained herself with tuning the radio further, finding other channels, more information to write down for Overwatch, some guards talking about their lives (it kind of terrifies Hana; that they’re people just like her and not just evil, mindless machines designed to kill and that they were planning to… oh god), stopping only for a while to hear a mediocre joke about some of their higher ups. She doesn’t find anything really important – lunch break, she thinks – and is about to turn off the radio when a melodic sound fills the room.

It’s a laugh. It’s pretty and high and airy and it makes the hand on the switch freeze. It’s been a while since she heard something like that. Girls didn’t laugh that pretty in the middle of a battle zone (maybe excluding Tracer but she always found her too annoying to think of her laugh as pretty). Hana stops breathing for a while; listening. It sounds carefree and relaxed and everything she’s not at the moment. She gradually fills with longing and the jealous seed grows taller and taller until the girl stops laughing and Hana catches herself softly saying “don’t go” before she can stop it. It’s not like she can hear her anyway.

The girl starts speaking; and Hana couldn’t smile wider. Her mixed emotions causing turmoil inside her; it’s a weird mixture of “she has a nice voice” and “you wouldn’t be laughing if you were in my shoes”. The guy she’s speaking to has a weird voice, like those guys in movies who speak through really heavy masks with voice altering software and it doesn’t really make her feel anything – probably because he sounds like doom and gloom and doesn’t speak much compared to the girl.

Hana picked up a little Spanish in the limited time she spend in Gibraltar but it isn’t nearly enough to help her understand what they are talking about. She picks up some key words but it doesn’t really lead her anywhere – all she knows is that they’re talking about food. Or at least the girl is.

She’s about to give up and go check the other channels when someone jumps into the conversation and they miraculously start speaking a language she can understand. It takes her a moment to recognise the voice but she saw her once on a mission and when she realises who it is she freezes up for the second time. It’s Widowmaker.

There’s no use dwelling on the past but the brief time she spend staring her down and trying to shoot her and then Talon’s call for retreat just as she was about to put her bullet through the glass of her mech was enough to make Hana exhale shakily.

She still sounds inhumanly cold. To her surprise she doesn’t say that her time is up and that they all knew she was here from the start and to turn around so she can put a bullet through her skull. No, she addresses the two who were speaking and Hana feels incredibly stupid.

“Sombra, Reymond asks if you’re ready.”

“Yeah, hi, Spiderman. Gabe and I have a question for you!”

A soft exhale, most likely a sigh. Hana found herself smiling at the thought that this happens enough to make even Widowmaker feel something. Maybe Lena was right.

“What is it?”

“Okay, so, we can’t agree on what’s better:  chiles rellenos or enchiladas. Help.”

“…Neither.” Hana can’t help but giggle at the ridiculousness of the whole situation.

“What?”

“Croissants. Get back to work, you’re leaving today.”

“What work, aren’t we assassins and stuff?” Silence. Hana snaps out of it, realising that she is, in fact, listening in on at least one’s of Talon’s top assassins’ conversation.

 “Widow?”

“I meant you Sombra. You have an assignment to complete. ”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I already did my job.”

“Report in.”

“Can’t you do that for me, please? Since you’re the workaholic here. Amélie?”

Another long silence.

“Widow?”

“Aww, she disconnected.”

“She told you not to call her that.”

“And you told me not to call you Gabe and you talk to me still. Relajate, what Reymond doesn’t know doesn’t hurt him.”

“It’s going to hurt the work put into her brain and she’s going to have to be conditioned again. And she has mission in two weeks. She can’t afford distractions. Especially when against Overwatch.”

Hana decided to stop here.  Despite all the information she was getting right now, it felt way too wrong to listen in on this. Besides, she heard what she had to.

“Yeah, well, that would be really bad. Obviously.”

As she started to tune the radio again, Hana thought the girl didn’t sound convincing at all.

* * *

 

Hours later, Hana was ready. Backpack with the flashlight in it, water, clock, radio, tools, her pistol and other small necessities were stored in her backpack. The notebook close to her heart, vowing to never leave without it. She still had some time but it was dark out and staying here won’t do her any good.

She would’ve hid and erased any evidence that she was here but Talon didn’t seem to care about the empty buildings around its base. She just left it as it is. And maybe, if they’re crazy enough, Overwatch will see that she didn’t die back there and survived and that maybe she’s still alive.

Hopefully.

At 7:50 PM she left the building, hair tied back, too big combat boots on her feet. She was still limping and her footsteps sounded a bit too loud for her taste but it’s not like she had any choice.

Talon HQ was lighted up like a Christmas tree and just across from her. Hana stuck to the shadows of the unused buildings – she studied their base for a whole week and didn’t have any time to test run the route but it seemed like the most reasonable one - and deliberately took the longer path to get across the main entrance. 

She knew the car would have to be chauffeured to it at 9 PM. No driver, one person. She assumed it was going to be left alone for a minute or two by the chauffer to the entrance and that’s when she gets her chance. Only one, live or die. If the worst comes to worst she could blow out their brains and just drive through the gates if they didn’t kill her anti-grav mechanism first. Goliath was a heavy armoured custom made jeep (advertised as unhackable, only 5 produced in the last decade) but that won’t help much if they can somehow turn it off. Even if the car had miraculously 4 rubber tires in its trunk she knew she won’t have time to install them. 

It’s now or never.

She looked at the windows up to see if someone was watching and nervously glanced at the bored receptionist. She seemed to be otherwise occupied with the computer.

She lied in wait across the main entrance in the only dark spot she could find. It seemed like an eternity before the car came. It seemed like a countdown to her death.

And then the moment finally came. She never prided herself in being patient but years of video games taught her exactly that. A coiling snake waiting and waiting for that perfect moment to appear. For a chance.  Hana gambled everything and put it on one card. The driver did step out of the car, didn’t lock it. He went into the HQ and left the keys on the desk. The clock was ticking; the glass elevator already coming down.

Hana gambled everything and won.

She crossed the street, quickly, quietly and opened the back door. She knew the interior and mechanics of this particular model, she knew it had a wall between the front and back seats, she knew its engine like she knew the back of her hand. If she didn’t get into gaming and then heroic business, she would have wanted to be an engineer. Maybe in another life but for now what started as just fixing computers might save her life.

She destroyed the back seat lights and curled up on the floor. A coiling snake. As soon as whoever is driving was past and out of sight of the gates, she’s going to put a bullet through their skull. Or maybe tie them up, and keep hostage. Important hostage would be good but it might be too risky. No point deciding now.

It took 135 hammers of her heart for her ticket to freedom to arrive. They loaded something into the trunk and didn’t bother checking out the back seat, thank whatever higher power existed. Soon they were on the road and, though muffled, she heard some humming coming from the front seat. Her driver was a woman. She just hoped it wasn’t Widowmaker.

The drive to the gate wasn’t particularly long – especially given her driver’s appreciation for speed. She inhaled sharply as she heard the window roll down and the woman exchange greetings with the gatekeeper. She was sure they were in the top clearance lane, that they won’t poke too much. She still felt terrified when her driver opened the small window between the front and back.

“See? Just me!”

The window closed and before long they were driving again.

Hana wasn’t happy to be stuck with Widowmaker’s buddy but at least it wasn’t her.

15 tedious minutes passed before she actually considered putting her pistol to Sombra’s head. And then she did it all at once in a quick movement. She pulled the window handle with her right, raised the pistol to the back of her – what was wrong with her head? Never mind - head with her left one and her right came around her throat. 

“Listen to me very carefully. You’re going to get off the lane, power down the car, step out and put the keys in my right pocket. After that you’re going to get into the trunk. We clear?” Hana’s throat felt hoarse after not using it for a week but it was the kind of pain she welcomed.

As soon as she felt the girl’s throat constrict against her hand she tightened it and whispered into her ear again.

“Don’t talk. Nod. Slowly.”

As soon as she noticed Sombra’s head nod she felt like she had won. This was very dangerous and coming out on top of someone Talon considered as important as Widowmaker made her feel high on power. Perhaps a tad too soon but she would enjoy it for the time being.

“Now, do as I said.”

She followed her instructions to a T, not talking once. But when she was handling her keys – Hana’s pistol to her temple and all – and had to finally turn around, she smirked a little and Hana didn’t know if this was the end or if she was just playing brave.

“Hana Song. Hola! Just the person I was expecting.”

She pointed her exclamation with an over exaggerated wink. Hana couldn’t believe the nerve of this woman – she clearly didn’t value her life.

“Shut up and do as I say.”

“You’re usually more talkative during your streams. Not that I mind you like that, it’s kinda hot.”

Something was either very, very wrong or the woman was crazy. Maybe even both. Hana tightened her hand around her throat and glared. She didn’t really care if Sombra’s supply of oxygen would run out before she did was she was told. Good riddance.

“I told you to shut up. Keys, now.”

She quickly complied this time and sat in the trunk, makeshift ties around her wrists and ankles.

Just as Hana was about to close the door, she opened her mouth, thankfully it wasn’t a scream.

“By the way, conejita, there’s a Talon convoy heading for us as we speak.”

Well, fuck.


	3. Chapter 3

She had to be bluffing, she had to. There was no way she could’ve informed her. Did she press some button while she hadn’t been looking?

Hana decided to disable the GPS and all wireless connections through the interface – if Sombra had been telling the truth she didn’t have much time to search for and destroy the modules. She didn’t have any time at all.

She wasn’t familiar with this country, much less its roads. It dawned onto her that she had no plan whatsoever – all she could do was make random guesses along and hope for the best. Maybe if she contacted Overwatch…

No. Hana felt her face go blue as suddenly she remembered something much more important. She left her mech lying around, just a mile from Talon’s gates. New, Overwatch-issued mech. It was dead with little to no chance of fixing it in its current state but the mere thought of its blueprints getting to the enemy made her recoil in horror and yet.

It was too late, she’s running for her life. Once she contacts the HQ they’ll know what to do. She hoped so, at least.

“I can help you, you know”. 

Hana almost panicked at the very close sounding voice. It was coming from the speakers and it was no one other than her captive.

“What the fuck.”

“Aww, you almost never swear on streams. I’m honoured. But to answer your question:  I’m a literal walking computer, don’t say you haven’t noticed. ”

“The fuck?”

“I hacked the car, conejita.”

Hana felt blood drain from her face for the second time in 5 minutes. She should’ve just put a bullet through her skull when she had the chance. Much less trouble that way.

“I thought it was unhackable.”

“It is. But not to me.”

Hana was right. She should’ve killed her much, much earlier.

“…Why haven’t you used autopilot yet, then?”

“That’s because I wanted you to relax Hana. I have no ill intentions. This is a peace offering.”

Hana wanted to die. She thought she was in control and yet… She swerved sharply off the road and - just like she expected – the car corrected its course automatically, controls flashing purple for a split second.

“Hana, don’t make me do things I don’t want to. I come in peace, really.”

If she thought she’d enjoy lame early 21-century memes she was… mostly right. But this was not the time nor place and definitely not the person she wanted to hear those from.

“What do you want?”

Her words were said through grit teeth. She was stuck with someone who could potentially end her with a flick of her finger. Unless…

Hana smiled to herself. She doubted Talon was after her at all. She just had to confirm it.

“I just want to help you.”

 “And how would you help me exactly? Sending Talon after me is hardly helping.”

“Oh you know I had to say that.  It’s a game. I’m sure you appreciate that.”

Now Hana was confused. She had no idea what Sombra was going on about. Not that it really mattered.

“Yeah, you know, I had to keep myself alive long enough to talk to you. I’m sure you’re intelligent enough to leave me alive as an important hostage if you knew they’re coming for you. And now that you know who’s in charge here… well, I took the risk and I won. We played a mind game, Hana, and I won.”

“But no hard feelings okay? I really want to help you.”

“You mean yourself.”

“Well, yeah, don’t we all?”

Hana made her breaths uneven, more convincing or at least she hoped it seemed that way.

“I don’t trust you and I know you want something but I don’t have a choice. So talk.”

“I’ll get you to your friends. They’re looking for you Hana. But can you let me out first? It’s kinda uncomfortable back here.”

“I…ok.”

She stopped the car, stepped out, drew out her pistol and opened the trunk door.

“Oh, finally, conejita. My wrists are-”

She didn’t have time to finish before Hana’s pistol’s handle connected with her temple.

When you can’t outhack a hacker, make sure they can’t hack.

And Hana was very, very good with hardware.

* * *

 

Hana might have been a little careless. She knew the implications behind all those illegal high tech implants and knew how easy it would be to break them. Especially the ones in Sombra’s head. But she was still annoyed with the woman and found it easy to move past the guilt. Her own life was on the line. She didn’t have time for randos who thought they could stand in her way.

For a second there she actually considered her offer but decided against it. Better safe than sorry, right?

She put her down in the front seat, untying her temporary binds. She made her seatbelt was on and sat down in her seat again. It didn’t really matter where she sat her down if she can hack her from everywhere in the car. No use for binds either. At least she didn’t have to stop the car again if she needed to whack her again.

She was back to having no plans.

As much as she dreamed of stopping by a motel, eating a proper meal, taking a hot shower and a warm bed, she still had to contact her employers first. She needed to tell them what happened, to hurry because she has a dangerous hostage in her hold and to retrieve her mech as quickly as possible.

The channels they used were monitored by now. Her best bet was getting an unregistered phone and calling someone. Which would be easier said than done. It was illegal here to sell those here. She might be better off searching the girl’s pockets. And then there’s the fact that she doesn’t know anyone’s number. She would need help, whenever she liked it or not.

She took out the water bottle with her right hand, unscrewed and carefully splashed her captive’s face. Maybe making her pass out was a bad idea in retrospect. Hana didn’t have a choice however. Besides, she earned it and - if Hana’s lucky – she won’t be as annoying this time with the threat of Hana’s pistol over her temple this time.

“Wake up, stupid face. Change of plans.”

“Oww. That really hurt you know?”

“Good. Now be good and tell me how to contact Overwatch.”

“Wait, why are we heading to the airport? I thought you’d be more interested in getting that little walking nuclear bomb of yours first.”

Hana couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How did she know about her mech, she had no idea.

“I worked out your channels. You don’t bother hiding them very well to be honest.”

She felt nauseous.

“You were the one who…”

“No, nope, that wasn’t me. I didn’t even report it; Talon doesn’t pay me for that.  By the way that was a really stupid plan. ”

Hana knew it was stupid and suicidal but Overwatch as an organisation, lacked reason and firm leadership. They were just a bunch of ragtag heroes, trying to save the world.

Talon HQ was scheduled to blow up on day one. It was going to be an easy job – strip down her mech to the reactor, replace the cargo, remotely activate self-destruct, get the hell out of there. But something went way wrong and they were ambushed on the way.

Her driver died first. It was a two-man mission and they failed. Talon must have assumed she was dead too.

“Do they think I’m…?”

“Talon? The HQ didn’t know about your little plan.”

_Then how?_

Sombra seemed to understand.

“The guy who got you… can’t really talk right now.”

“Why?”

“I made sure he’d-”

“No. Why did you do that? Doesn’t it count as betrayal?”

“This is my job. I do what I’m told nothing less, nothing more. As for why… I like making friends.”

Hana scoffed. Friends. She’d rather not owe her one. And she doesn’t trust wild cards.

“Stop the car, Hana.”

She froze up momentarily, much more used to the teasing tone of Sombra’s voice. The one she used right now made her remember what sort of position she’s in despite being the driver.

“Why would I do that?”

“Stop it or I’ll have to do it.”

She reluctantly pulled off the road.

“Now what?”

Her captive, or rather her tormentor, smirked. Her violet eyes sparked with mischief once again.

“I have a present for you! It’s in the trunk. ”

She got out and opened it. For a moment she thought Sombra’s gift was being locked and bound with random cables like she was earlier.

“Open the suitcase on your left.”

Puzzled, Hana opened it carefully. Inside was a core reactor. Her core reactor.

“It took me a while to get it, you know. I don’t normally have to screw things open.”

“Are you out of your mind?! It’s unstable without the panels. What were you thinking?”

“Oops.”

Hana felt like thwacking her with the pistol’s grip for the second time.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

“You can drive back and blow the HQ up for all I care. But I hoped you would take it home with you.”

“So you can blow up us?”

No answer.

Hana sealed the suitcase and fell back into her seat once again.

“Wait. So you basically drove out today to look for me and give me my reactor back?”

“Well, yeah. Since we’re BFFs and all. I really thought you didn’t make it inside the base but then again I was always pretty bad at trajectory math.”

“You look like shit by the way. Did you eject into a building or something?”

Hana’s cheeks burned with shame. She still had some shrapnel lodged in her jaw and her limping must have given everything away.

“Oh.”

There was a moment of silence as she drove and Hana didn’t know if she was relieved or not. Spending seven days in complete solitude made her have conflicted feelings about the company of others. Even if said others were dangerous hacker assassin who could turn on her at any given moment.

“Can you contact Overwatch?”

“Sure, conejita. Why the airport though?”

“Not the airport. We’re heading for the docks.”

Air traffic was monitored way too tightly to get through and while Hana could pilot a standard plane, she was not familiar with the act of sneaking in and posing as one.

They’d shoot her out of the sky in less than 2 minutes.

The sea was probably her best bet. Safety meant getting off the island as soon as possible. She’d have to get out the same way she got in.

“Earlier you said that my friends were looking for me. What did you mean?”

“Oh yeah, they are. They only checked outside the fence though. Couldn’t find your mech since I destroyed it so I guess they think you’re dead or Talon’s captive because they left.”

“Aren’t I?”

“No, not Talon’s. Mine.” She smiled widely at her and Hana felt pure, utter disgust.

“So what do you want in exchange for me?”

“A favour or two.” She hummed and reached to brush a stray lock of Hana’s hair behind her ear.

Hana wanted to disappear and be as far away from the other girl as soon as possible.

“So how are we gonna contact them?”

“Oh, I already did. Walking computer remember?”

“And what did you tell them?”

“To be here in a week. South of where we’re heading right now, conejita. Just by the way.”

Hana felt herself boiling with rage. She had to spend another week in this asshole’s company? Well, fuck her.

“Are you out of your mind? The fuck. Why a whole fucking week?”

“Aww. Don’t be like that. I just wanted to get to know you better.” 

This girl was going to be the end of her, she knew that.

* * *

 

Turns out, Sombra was scheduled to be back at base by tomorrow evening. Which gave them a head start of about 18 hours. They’d have to abandon the car and get another one. If they’re lucky Talon will think they departed from the island already. They’d have to-

Hana’s thoughts were interrupted by the sounds coming from her stomach. She hadn’t had much to eat this past week and it and much to her ire, her body reminded her of everything at one. Including the fact that she’s been awake for nearly 40 hours. In other circumstances she’d have no problem with carrying on - she did streams that went on for far longer than that – but the malnutrition, wounds and nearly freezing to death back at the apartment made sure she couldn’t do that.

Hana never turned around to go south. They were still heading for the north bay or, more accurately, the city. The girl beside her was busying herself with her holo screens and endless strings of code, which Hana was thankful for. One annoyance less.

The sea of glowing buttons was making her dizzy enough.

By the time they reached the city it was 2 AM. Hana felt like she’d die if she didn’t sleep soon. They left the car opened, with the keys inside, two streets away from the motel. Hana felt bad for leaving the car but her life was much more precious.

Sombra, surprisingly, went without protests or whining, even offering her shoulder to lean on when Hana nearly fell over from the strain on her legs (Hana firmly turned her offer down).

The motel was seedy and still open at this hour. Sombra made sure to loop whatever cameras they happened to pass by and paid the owner twice as much for discretion. Better to let him think they were having an illicit affair rather than escaping from the clutches of Talon.

As soon as she saw the bed she nearly cried from joy. The other suitcase conveniently consisted of clean clothes and medical supplies.

Hana would’ve been touched if Sombra had really been her friend.

As such as she wanted to just lie down, she couldn’t ignore the fact that she needed a bath and clean bandages.

(She spend almost an hour in hot water, silently crying.)

When she emerged, she felt much better and much cleaner and was just generally happy there was an actual functioning bathroom now.

Her stomach growled when she realised Sombra had ordered takeaway.

“Sorry, they don’t have Korean anywhere here. Chinese works though, right?”

“Yeah, um, thanks.”

“Anything for my secret lover.”

“Yeah, I take that back. You’re the actual worst.”

They sat on the bed together, eating in silence. Somewhere halfway through her noodles Sombra tugged her bathrobe to the side and winced at the sight of her shoulder.

“Yeah, sorry bunny but we’re gonna have to patch it right away.”

She let her undress her to her underwear all the while eating. She looked her over and decided to take care of the shoulder first.

“I have no idea how are you still breathing with those ribs of yours.”

Hana decided to take it as a compliment and just made a grunt, too busy eating.

“You’re gonna choke. Slow down. Or, actually, stop eating.”

Hana eventually did. She knew what was coming. Pulling a bullet out was always painful and she’d rather not bite her tongue off. She was handed painkillers and a towel to bite into. Antiseptic, a pair of medical pliers and everything else was already ready and laid out on the bed. They didn’t have proper anaesthetic or equipment so this would have to do.

Hana burned the skin around it so it wouldn’t get infected or close up. She wondered if this was why Sombra looked so pitifully at her.

The painkillers only dulled the pain somewhat.  She felt like she was dying and burning her skin a second time. By the time the bullet was out, she was dizzy, half lying on Sombra, breathing heavily and covering them in blood.

The other woman had to steady her against the wall once again all the while trying to calm her down with what she heard as soft shhs but wouldn’t bet on it with all her senses going haywire.

Sombra had to damage the burned tissue a bit so it would heal properly. By the time she was done Hana was half passed out, half sobbing. She made her swallow more painkillers all the while caressing her face and humming something Hana didn’t recognise.

* * *

 

Hana awoke to discover Sombra had moved onto her legs, her shoulder and ribs already patched up.

“Finally, I was sprinkling water on you for the last half an hour.”

Hana knew she was lucky to have woken up at all.

Sombra removed her badly done stitches on her legs and replaced them with her own. The antiseptic stung but the Nano tech Talon most likely stole from Mercy made her feel warm and tingly and she had never been more glad that someone actually took Angela’s pride and joy.

That left her various cuts and the shrapnel stuck in her face. It was over soon and she was back to eating the now cold food while Sombra was cleaning up the blood left after they pulled out the bullet and stinging her with the antiseptic, stopping sometimes to apply a bandage.

“I’m gonna clean up.”

Hana made no movement to acknowledge it, focusing on the rest of her food and randomly switching channels on the holo screen. When she discovered the most interesting thing on was a rerun of yesterday’s Starcraft II tournament she decided she’d rather wrestle into the shirt Sombra gave her.

Watching Esports now always made her feel a little bitter. (She might have been a champion for years but she wouldn’t stand a chance now. She tried to play sometimes but despite being very good she just lacked the practice time.)

She ate most of the food and as soon as Sombra emerged she went to brush her teeth. She missed this. But she knew she can’t play house with a Talon agent. As far as she knew Sombra might randomly decide to give her out.

Those thoughts seemed to matter less and less the closer she was to the bed.

The other girl was in her pyjamas, hair in a bun, putting back her gloves on. One of them already on, the second one on but not connected to what seemed like a port in her arm. Hana looked on in curiosity.

“Did it hurt?”

“This? Yeah, like hell.” She smiled at her and for the first time it felt somewhat genuine.

“Does it still…?”

“Most of the time, no.”

Hana watched on as the cables connected to the port and started glowing.

“How do you even sleep at night?”

“I can turn it off. Wait a sec.”

Hana blinked as Sombra stopped glowing and then the lights in the room turned off too. She could feel the girl’s breath on her cheek.

And then Sombra’s lights blinked to life, purple shrouding everything in a soft glow.

“Pretty cool, huh?”

“Wow. Yeah. Pretty cool.”

After a few seconds of looking at her captor she finally came to her senses. Hana had no idea what happened there and would rather not think about it.

“Goodnight.”

She caught Sombra’s face scrunching in confusion before she turned around under the covers.

“Yeah, night.”

She was the enemy. In a week she would be free and back and this woman wouldn’t matter to her at all.


	4. Chapter 4

She woke up first, embarrassed about the fact that she turned around in her sleep and somehow nuzzled into Sombra’s neck. It’s just been so long since she last talked to someone other than herself…

She put on the pants and the sneakers Sombra got her. (Hana would rather not think about the fact that she had to hack into her employer’s database to acquire her exact measurements and she’d rather not think about the fact that she probably has all the information about everyone on the base). They fit well and Hana feels much better with new bandages in place. Her stomach made an inhuman growl and it’s her cue to wake Sombra up.

“Sombra, Sombra. Wake up.”

Soon she’s staring into vibrant violet eyes (those must be implants too, she thinks) and she feels she said something terribly wrong.

“How do you know who I am?”

Hana’s taken aback for a bit. She never did introduce herself to Hana, that’s true.

“I… Overwatch filled me in on Talon’s agents.”

It’s a half truth. While they did tell her about Reaper and Widowmaker and everyone important on file, they had no data on Sombra. They probably didn’t know she existed.

“Bullshit. I monitor your database. You have nothing on me, not even my name.”

Hana kept her lips pursed. She might have known she was lying but she didn’t have to know where she found out about her. Certainly didn’t need to know she was spying on them. Sombra didn’t say anything, continuing to look at her suspiciously. What Sombra doesn’t know, won’t kill her.

She needed to tell Winston about Sombra’s backdoor. She knew something went down a while before she joined. A hacking attempt. If she’s right then it wasn’t just an attempted one. Unless there were other ones she didn’t know about.

“Why are we awake so early?”

“It’s 2 PM.”

“I don’t wake up till at least 4 PM so this is inconvenient.”

“You’ll just have to suck it up. I’m hungry.”

“Oh. Ooh. Ok.”

Half an hour later they’re eating yet another takeaway. This time it’s Indian.

“I’d offer to take you out to a proper restaurant but-”

“Yeah, I know. And you don’t have to be so fake nice, I’m not falling for it.”

Sombra’s expression went from fake hurt to a sly smirk in a split second. Her teeth stained slightly yellow from the overabundance of turmeric in the food as she moved way too close for comfort, leaving Hana flustered and disgusted at herself for even considering the girl attractive when her teeth was stained and she reeked of spices.

“Are you sure about that?”

Hana wanted to dig a hole and hide in it or even give herself to Talon willingly. Everything would be better than being stuck with that woman.

* * *

 

They leave at 3 PM. It’s a questionable neighbourhood so hijacking a car won’t raise much suspicion. Hana knows how to jump start a car and she knows that Sombra could just hack it but she’s not offering, just looking at her with that smirk while she works and Hana has too much pride to ask for her help.

“Stop staring.”

“Why? I have a nice view from here.”

Hana decides that since this behaviour is clearly not going away she’s going to have to live with it and stop murdering and threatening Sombra in her head. Maybe she’d be calmer that way. Zenyatta would be proud, she’s sure.

It takes her whole 28 seconds to open and then another 30 to start it. Everything is already loaded into the backseat and Hana pulls off the picture of a family stickered to the front window.

They drive off, south this time. According to Sombra it would take 2 days of driving to get there. She won’t say where, just gives out vague instructions how to get there, often telling her to take the longer less frequented roads.

As much as she wants to strangle her – or at least imagine that – she doesn’t but it doesn’t make her calm at all. Thankfully, she doesn’t talk much and works away on her keyboard, not minding when Hana turns the volume up.

They drive like that for a few hours before Sombra asks if she wants to switch. Hana would’ve said no if pressing the pedals didn’t put such a pressure on her legs. They buy snacks at a station and Hana takes the passenger seat. To her horror Sombra sits and the car starts driving on autopilot, which would’ve been fine if it wasn’t an older model that still experienced some troubles with it.

Sombra doesn’t seem to care and turns to her instead.

She fires up a holo screen before them and asks if she wants to play a game.

Hana’s torn between saying yes and screaming to let her out.

* * *

 

She said yes, in the end. They already played chess, battleship and all the retro games Hana enjoyed.  To her surprise Sombra didn’t cheat and Hana won every game besides chess.

The delicate glove on her hand felt somewhat wrong and right at the same time. It took her a while to get used to playing with it instead of a controller but once she got the hang of it, she couldn’t help but notice how easy it was.

She needed to get herself those for Christmas.

Currently they were in the middle of a very intense Mario Cart game that neither was winning. Hana was getting frustrated, this game was somewhat much harder than the others have been as it required more coordination and Hana wasn’t entirely used to the glove, yet. 

“It’s not fair; you wear those all the time.”

“Life isn’t fair, conejita.”

Hana slammed her car into Sombra’s. This went on for a while; neither of them wanting to lose and each push was answered with another one. Just as Hana was about to win, they heard the sirens.

There was a police unit behind them.

As they pulled over Hana was biting the nails on her free hand, while she slipped the glove off at the same time Sombra did. Was this the end? Hana wasn’t sure and even the hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her didn’t do much to calm her down.

“Good evening, officer.” Hana watches as Sombra puts on her winning smile and it only serves to make her more nervous. She has to remind herself to smile and while she’s a wreck on the inside, her years of acting in front of a camera save her from slipping up.

“Good evening, may I see your documents?”

Sombra hands him a transparent card with a number on it. Hana waits with her breath drawn while it’s being scanned.

“Everything seems to be okay, Mrs. Santiago. I pulled you over because you had a holo screen running in the front seat. It’s illegal since last year.”

“Yes, I know, we’re extremely sorry. My wife opened it on accident, right, sweetheart?”

Hana smiles and says yes through gritted teeth. The officer softens at the sight of Hana interlocking their hands (she deliberately makes sure to squeeze just a little too tightly and that the nails dug into her skin with just enough pressure – Hana’s just a little too proud of herself when she feels her hand flinch).

“I’ll let you go with a warning and a foot note this time. Please don’t do this again, the screen can’t obscure the windows, autopilot or not. Good night.”

(They move into the backseat after that and watch some really bad horror movies; Sombra tells her it’s only fair that she’ll hack the next car while erasing the data on her license).

* * *

 

The next motel they arrive at is much cleaner and doesn’t smell as bad as the first one. After the week in the empty building, Hana feels like royalty. There’s always a warm bed, Sombra never forgets to buy food (which is a blessing considering her bones were sticking out more so than usual after the liquid diet she was on before this) and she gets whatever she wants. It’s enough to make her cry in the bathtub again. This time, however, it’s not a nervous breakdown but rather a warm, nice sort of feeling that makes her cry.

She’s just happy she’s still breathing. And with each hour she’s more and more convinced she’ll make it out alive. A word she wouldn’t consider a few days ago.

They spend half an hour eating yet another takeaway, Hana taking her time to actually chew this time. They even smile and joke and Hana feels thankful for the company even if it is Sombra.

They watch another movie and say goodnight. Sombra is still working when the lights go out.

* * *

 

Another day starts (day 3, only 4 more until she can go back to her… friends, yes they’re friends), Hana’s the second one to wake up this time, Sombra already in her usual flannel and ripped jeans combo. She’s doing… something, as usual. There’s a coffee cup in her hand and Hana feels a bit hurt she didn’t get her one.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

She switches the holo screen off, bends down and gives her the second container with coffee.

“Wasn’t sure what you liked so I just got you normal coffee.”

Hana isn’t sure if it’s because she’s not fully awake yet or if it’s because she sits up too fast but her heart skips a beat.

“Mhmm. Thanks.”                                                                                                 

She gulps down the coffee, avoiding looking in the other girl’s direction. The coffee itself is drinkable. It has an appropriate ratio of sugar to drink. Yeah.

“Get dressed.”

Hana furrows her brows and Sombra answers her immediately.

“We’re going out.”

* * *

 

It’s pretty cold out. It is, however, December so it’s understandable. And yet, Hana decides to go out in a skirt for some reason, bandages slightly visible through her thighs. Sombra looks like she’s immune to the cold; she doesn’t even care to zip up her hoodie.

Hana’s freezing.

She spends most of the walk calling herself stupid in her thoughts (though she’s kind of proud of herself when her companion’s gaze lingers on her legs for just a second too long).

The restaurant they’re heading to is – according to Sombra – private and the owner owes her a favour anyway. He won’t tell a soul, she says.

Hana doesn’t exactly what this is and she’d rather not give it a name.

She can hardly think of anyone else in Talon who’d treat her to expensive restaurants and let her sleep beside them when she could just slit their throat during their slumber (and it’s scary to think that somewhere during their road trip she started to call her a companion instead of a captor, so she doesn’t).

She doesn’t think about it all and continues to walk.

The walk itself is somewhat brief and she’s relieved to be outside even if it’s for a while and the cold makes her want to run back to the motel.

They’re lead into a private dining room, underground. There are candles all over and Hana wants to face palm herself. Of course it would look like this. Her stomach won’t stop making nervous flips and turns and she has to count to ten to ground herself.

They’re seated and given menus. Sombra seems more occupied with her holo keyboard, thankfully. But the waiting time for their meals gets longer and longer and Hana can’t stand the silence anymore.

“So, do you regularly talk to Overwatch or…?”

“Not really. Just exchanged some mails to get to an agreement.”

“Can I see them?”

“…No.”

The silence is awkward and unbearable. She felt like she stepped onto a mine and maybe she did because Sombra decides to elaborate and Hana gets all of her stupid delusions thoroughly smashed and ground into a thin powder. It’s not like she can control her subconscious feelings, it’s been a while and she always did have a soft spot for pretty girls. She never actually hoped for anything.

“Hana, don’t take this the wrong way but you’re a means to an end. You’re a job. That’s it.”

She knows. She knows that. Doesn’t mean it didn’t sting.

Sometime during the silence that started right after their meals arrived. She decided to get some sort of molecular strawberry balls and Sombra got chilli con carne… which seemed to not be on the menu.

“So I could’ve just ordered anything and they’d make it.”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Hana hanged miserably over her plate of strawberry spheres. She missed Korean kitchen so much… Sombra seems to be back to her normal self so at least that’s familiar.

As soon as they’re left alone with their meal they dig in and Hana discovers it’s not so bad. She’s so pleasantly surprised she doesn’t even notice when she starts smiling which probably prompts Sombra to steal a few of the spheres.

“Hey!”

She smiles at her, a daring glint in her eyes and she deliberately takes her time eating her meal, eyebrows aching upwards. And… are those piercings on her tongue?

Hana has to look down or she’ll die. She’s sure of that. Unless…

Two can play at this game. Maybe all Sombra meant by this was that this was a game – to make her feel more at home.  Was she waiting for her to join in?

Hana played to win.

She might have not been the most seductive or the most attractive but she could certainly play dirty.

She wished she had cherries or something of the sort; meanwhile those would have to do. She leaned in, locking her eyes with girl sitting in front of her. There was supposed to be nothing hot about this; it was a calculated sort of game to rile each other up and claim the temporary position of power. Sombra seemed to understand what was going on and let her have her turn.

She took her time, sphere between her thumb and forefinger. She rolls it between them, licks her lips. She finally brings it to her mouth, leaving it open enough to let Sombra see her tongue work. She smirks when she sees Sombra swallow thickly. For the final act she brings her fingers to her mouth and licks them clean, moaning a little around them for good measure.

Sombra looks away. Hana cheers a little on the inside.

Hana feels like this is a really idiotic game and that the overdone sexual gestures were really stupid and not hot at all but winning is winning and she feels like she’s on top of the world for beating Sombra in something.  Hana: 1, Sombra: 0.

She leans in close enough so she can whisper and still be hearable and takes Sombra’s chin in her hand, making her look at Hana.

“Git gud, Sombra.”

Upon hearing what she said the woman seated opposite of her just gawks at her, eyes and mouth wide. Hana stops herself from saying ‘gg no re’ because she’s being extra enough with her outdated gaming terms and really bad fake flirting. Instead she leans back, smiles her better-than-you million dollar – well, pound, if they consider the location - smile and they don’t acknowledge the incident for the rest of their outing, focusing on their respective plates.

* * *

 

To Hana’s misfortune it’s still cold when they finally come out of the restaurant, Christmas decorations twinkling all around them despite the fact it was a month too early. Sombra’s little moment of shyness passed but she still looks a bit flushed and avoids her gaze when Hana catches her looking. She feels like she finally did something right.

When they hear arguing near the motel they think nothing of it.

It isn’t till they round the corner and see that its Talon’s foot soldiers examining the car they stole that they realise they’ve been found out.

 Hana yanks Sombra back around the corner and puts a finger to her lips, grips her arm and makes a movement with her head to signalise that they should head in the direction they came from.

The suitcases were still inside the motel, never mind the one with the clothes. The other one however…

As soon as Sombra realised where they’re heading she yanked her arm back.

“Are you out of your mind? We can’t go back.”

“My reactor is still in there, we need to get it back.”

“We can’t, Hana. This place is crawling with Talon; we have to go, now.”

 She drags her into an alley.

“I need to get it back.”

She’s dead serious and knows this is stupid but this is her reactor they’re talking about. She’s not handing it over on a plate. They stare each other down for quite some time.

“…Fine.”

They go the long way around, keeping to alleys and narrow streets. Talon’s soldiers are easily spottable, clad in their black, standard issue uniforms.

“They probably send Reaper or Widow after me. Maybe they think you kidnapped me.”

“Sombra, what did you do?”

“I… might have messed with the lights on the road a bit. Or maybe that policeman gave us out, I don’t know.”

“Sombra!”

World’s brightest hacker couldn’t keep her hands off traffic lights, brilliant.

“You know what, stay here.”

“What? Where are you going?”

She gets a boop to her nose as an answer.

Hana stares as Sombra drops something from her pocket and vanishes into thin air.

“What in the-”

“Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

She listens and stays, counting minutes she’s gone, afraid and alone.


	5. Chapter 5

Hana hears a commotion from the direction of the motel they were staying at. Then silence.

And just as Sombra materialises into existence where she dropped the purple thing, there’s a huge explosion.

Hana doesn’t know if this is a nightmare. She wants it to be.

“Did you? You fucking!”

She grips her shoulders way too tightly, hoping it’d hurt. It didn’t matter that she destroyed the reactor. Hana looks at her and sees a killer.

She should’ve known.

“At least I bought us some time.”

She tries not to think about how many innocents died. She tries and tries but all she sees is her hometown, shrouded in red. She sees her parents, lifeless on the ground. Sombra’s not better than the omnics.

She wants to make a rash decision and leave her but she can’t and it’s killing her from the inside. She starts sobbing and bends forward, feeling sick.

“Hey, conejita, calm down. It’s just a reactor; I’ll mail you a new one.”

“Do… Do you ever just stop and think what you’re doing?”

“What?”

“Do you know how many people you killed? Are you playing dumb?”

“What? Does it matter? What’s important is that we got rid of most of them, c’mon we gotta go.”

“It fucking matters. Every life matters.”

Sombra doesn’t’ say anything, doesn’t look at her. Hana wants to leave but lets herself be pulled anyway.

* * *

 

They go in a completely different direction from the explosion, every Talon operative rushing to see what happened.

Hana’s drained and sick and her wounds ache. She focuses on the pain because that’s the only thing keeping her going. That and hate.

She would make Sombra’s life a living hell.

But she needed to get out first.

So they run and run and they’re spotted by one of Talon’s agents but make it out alive, thanks to Hana’s bullet in their head. She doesn’t bother strapping it back to her tight.

Sombra pulls her along to a much better car than they were in before, hacks it in a matter of seconds and they drive off, leaving the city.

It doesn’t take long till someone notices. There’s a car right behind them and Hana’s pretty sure it’s Talon. She makes her decision and tells Sombra to switch seats with her.

She’s awarded with a ‘what?’ but she’s already unbuckling her, car flashing in warning. Sombra has to comply and soon they’re in each other’s seats. Hana grabs the steering wheel.

“Turn off autopilot.”

Sombra looks between her and the rear mirror and Hana thinks she won’t do it for a moment.

“…Okay.”

She braces for the second it turns off, her foot already on the pedal. It still throws them against the seats but Hana stays at the speed she chose.

“Turn off the warnings and limitations while you’re at it.”

Hana’s a pilot. She knows how to handle machines much bigger than this. But as Sombra hacks into the car, she can’t help but be a little nervous. She never actually drove a car with safety measures off. They were programmed into the core system; there was no way of turning them off.

Well, not if you’re Sombra apparently.

The moment the controls stop flashing and the AI stops telling them to slow down, Hana puts even more pressure with her foot. She’s going way faster than a car is supposed to ride and it leaves Talon in the dust.

“Can we do something about the police?”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll take care of that.”

She plans on slowing down as soon as they’re safe but once they can’t see the other car, another one appears. Coming straight towards them, on the wrong lane.

“What the…”

Sombra tries but can’t hack it while it’s moving like that. There’s only one way they’re getting out of this and Hana makes a sudden turn to the left.

“Be ready.”

“No! Hana-”

It’s too late, the car is already crashing into the railings and then it tumbles down into the forest.  

* * *

 

Sombra must have restored some functionality to the safety measures and anti-grav right before they started their descend because the pillows work, they landed much more safely than they would if it was still off and the AI is back, screeching into her ears. Well, one of them. The second one is ringing and she tastes blood on her mouth. She just hopes her wounds didn’t reopen. Hana doesn’t exactly know if she passed out for a few seconds or just closed her eyes. Her memory is blurry at best.

Sombra looks a little worse for wear, completely passed out, blood on her forehead. Hana doesn’t know how to proceed with this so she just does what her instinct tells her to.

Here’s the thing about car crashes: they never actually happen. If they do it’s usually the autopilot’s fault and whenever there’s one, it’s all over the news, treated as the news of the century.

Hana never considered she’d be in one, much less that she’d make it happen. But then again, she never thought she’d be driving a car like this. So she just smiles a bit and thinks ‘achievement unlocked’ and moves on.

She reaches out, gets Sombra’s seatbelt off and then hers.  She opens the door and considers leaving her, for a moment. But she’s still her ticket out of here and she has nowhere to go. It could be months before Overwatch finds her.

Months she could not survive.

So, instead, she crawls out of the car (her ribs hurt like hell but she wills herself to walk), limps over to Sombra’s door. She opens it, pulling her out of the wreck and slaps, hard.

“Wake up, we gotta go.”

It takes a few more slaps during which she panics and watches if she’s still alive but she appears to have a regular breath. Worst case, she’ll probably think of this as a hangover (Hana sincerely hopes her implants weren’t damaged in the fall).

She finally wakes up.

“Hana, what the fuck. You could’ve killed us.”

“We’re alive, stop complaining.”

She puts her arm over her shoulder and buckles under her weight. Sombra’s a little bit taller than her so that makes it difficult as well.

“Can you walk?”

“Yeah, just… give me a minute.”

Hana starts walking anyway, her legs feeling like they’re on fire.

“Told you to give me… a sec. You shouldn’t – I should be the one dragging you, you know.”

“Yeah, we don’t have time for that bullshit. Come on.”

Sombra complies, shuffling her feet to match Hana’s footsteps.

The forest looks menacing but they go in anyway.

* * *

 

Hana never thought that she’d get lost in the forest. Or that she’d see one that isn’t part of a park or a hotel or something. This one was way bigger than she’d ever seen a forest get. It kind of scares her.

Sombra can’t really catch reception here but her inner compass is working and that’s all they need. They’ve gotten some sort of head start but she knows it won’t mean anything when they’re injured and outnumbered while Talon’s not.

Then there’s the fact that it’s starting to get dark and it’s cold. December kind of cold.

Hana doesn’t know what they’ll do. They won’t reach the edge of the forest today, not in this state and at the pace they’re going.

Maybe if they keep moving they won’t freeze to death.

She knows she’ll be the first one to go because Sombra has some high tech heating build in (Hana thinks it’s just her implants overheating but doesn’t say anything) and Hana is very jealous of that.

Doesn’t matter.

They walk and walk until it gets completely dark and there’s only so much Sombra can light up. They’re put before a choice: go on and freeze, maybe become dinner to some random animal or stay, light a fire and potentially give out their position.

There’s not much to decide.

Sombra has no idea how to light a fire but Hana had to take a survival course during her training with MEKA. It taught her a lot but nothing prepared her for this. She wouldn’t have dreamed this scenario in her wildest dreams.

She starts building a fire, which probably won’t help Sombra much, seeing as she’s burning up (maybe she did get something damaged, after all) but it’ll keep the animals off of them and Hana warm.

It takes her a bit but the twigs finally catch on fire and Hana feels like she accomplished something in her life. She’s almost as proud of herself as she was when she became a Starcraft II champion for the first time. Needless, to say, she’s very proud.

She does everything the course taught her and then sits next to her captor. She’s shivering and has a bad fever but Hana knows she won’t be able to help her. So she just falls asleep, holding her.

* * *

 

Come morning, Hana learns two things – Sombra ran an auto diagnostic tool while trying to stay up (it’s the implant in her neck that’s acting up) and that Talon isn’t far off from where they are. The fire went out at least an hour ago but she puts rocks in it for good measure.

She plucks the leaves from Sombra’s braid and looks at the implant on her neck. It’s a tiny thing and she doesn’t see much wrong with it, externally. She doesn’t know how she would fix it without tools anyway, so she leaves it be and tells her to bear it for the time being.

They march again, Hana overexerting herself for both of their sakes.

(It takes Talon at least an hour to catch up to them and they have to hide under the roots of trees and behind them but they manage to lose them for a while. Sombra scoffs, calls them idiots for not scanning for heat and tech. Hana’s glad Talon doesn’t equip them with visors like that or they’d be on their way back to Talon.)

Three whole hours later, they’re out of the forest. As soon as she sees civilisation, Hana cheers.

“We need to get my implant patched up.”

“Mhm. But do they have anyone who does this here? Seems like a pretty small town.”

Sombra’s busy with researching for a minute. Hana can’t help but feel impatient when usually she’d have the results back in two seconds.

“They have a body mod shop but it seems like it doesn’t do illegal stuff. We can buy the tools and try fixing it though.”

Hana knows that means her and furrows her brows.

“I’ve never done this before.”

“First time for everything. I’ll get you the instructions and blueprints since I can’t really reach. Besides you have experience with delicate technology, shouldn’t be too hard.”

She reluctantly nods and they go into the tech store.

* * *

 

Sombra lies on her stomach in the rented room. Hana has no idea what she’s doing as she looks at the blue prints.

“This is way more complicated than what I’ve ever done.”

“Yeah, well, just don’t kill me and we’ll be fine.”

She steadies her hands, unscrewing the lid. She won’t be able to remove the implant, not when it’s connected to Sombra’s brain like that. She temporarily shut it down and guides Hana with her voice.

“The third chip is damaged; you’ll have to remove it. Very carefully.”

Hana does as she’s told. It’s kind of like fixing her computer and her mech at once except this is way smaller and way more dangerous.

It’s kind of a challenge, that way.

(They had to get a magnifying visor that cost them several thousands. Hana was disturbed, to say the least.)

She puts the liquid silver on the chip she’s supposed to replace the broken one with and sets it down, very carefully. She even stops breathing for a while.

Sombra tells her the worst is behind her and she’s glad. When she finally shuts the implant and it comes back online she can’t help but feel curious.

“Do you have to do this often?”

“This? Yeah, every week or so. But to be honest I’ve never damaged the one on my neck yet.”

“What about the one on your spine?”

“It’s made to be unbreakable so it never really does get damaged; if it were to need repairs I guess I’d have to visit my local body modder or something.”

Hana hums as an answer.

Sombra puts her clothes on and gets out her card, giving it to Hana.

“Do you mind getting some pills and other stuff for me? I kinda need to lie down for a while.”

Hana agrees and walks alone for the first time. It’s terrifying. But what scares her even more is how dependent she became on Sombra’s company.

* * *

 

She comes back and the room is, surprisingly, not empty.

Oh, right, she’s still a hostage.

She got Sombra soup and hot tea and water and pills and whatever else a person with a fever might need.

She grunts out a thanks and they go out and get a random car, Hana taking the driver’s seat, Sombra sprawled out on the back seats, sleeping. The autopilot is on and with Sombra not doing anything illegal they’re at a low detection rate.

Hana tries to get the AI to tell her where it’s taking them but all she hears is “access denied” every time. She can’t believe Sombra found it in herself to do this while in this state.

Hana takes a nap only waking when Sombra is having particularly bad nightmares. She can’t really tell with her miniscule understanding of Spanish but it’s something about the omnics and her parents.  This in turn makes her scared she’ll have nightmares of her own so she doesn’t go back to sleep and plays on the portable game console she bought earlier. Hana’s embarrassed that in her twenty years of life, she’s never played Pokémon, even though everyone knows she has a thing for retro games. It was time to catch up.

She missed this.

* * *

 

Eventually Sombra’s awake. Its night and her fever went down but only slightly.

Hana has no idea what day is it but she’s glad she’s alive.

(The AI informs her it’s Saturday, the 4th of December, 2077.)

Sombra apparently thinks it’s time for a stop. The car stops in yet another seedy neighbourhood but this time it’s part of a major city.

“There’re Talon ops all over. Why stop here?”

“We’re gonna have to go underground. I’ll die if this won’t stop.”

“I thought we fixed you?”

“Yeah, but thing is this is a fever caused by an implant. It won’t go away unless you get rid of it with something special.”

“Something.. special?”

“Yeah we need a serum or a pill. I usually carry the serum with me but it got destroyed back at the motel…”

“Holy shit, Sombra. Okay, let’s go.”

Hana was frustrated to say the least. Here she was, being dragged by an insane girl into old, unused metro tunnels and she couldn’t do anything about it.

Sombra covered her head with a hood. Hana understood how dangerous this was, Talon probably already having a bounty on their heads by now. She’d stay but it seemed worse to leave Sombra alone. She’d just have to stick to the shadows while Sombra did… whatever she had to do.

(Hana could see it now: Badly photoshopped picture of her pistol to Sombra’s temple, maniacal laughter and headline: “Deranged criminal takes innocent hostage.” Bounty: A lot of money for giving them out alive.)

She’s kind of terrified, kind of fascinated as they turn around into one of the tunnels and she sees the really long queue waiting for their turn at the holo menu inside the dedicated room. They stand in queue and wait for a long time, not saying a thing.

It isn’t till they’re inside and Sombra’s scrolling through the option, that she talks.

(Hana briefly sees the potential of black market: extinct animals, plants, omnics tailored to fit your needs, human organs. She recoils in horror.)

“Look, I… I’m sorry.”

“About what?”

Hana had a feeling what this was about. She didn’t want to talk about it but she bit her tongue.

“The explosion. I guess I don’t always think about anyone else than myself and your values are different so I… I don’t know I’m sorry.”

“I don’t care if you’re sorry for upsetting me. I want to see you sorry for killing those people. They’re not just collateral damage.”

Maybe this was not the time or place for lectures about morality but Hana held it in for so long she didn’t care anymore.

“You can’t just kill people. Didn’t the war take your parents too?”

“How would you…?”

“You kept talking in your sleep. I’m not dumb. How do you think other people felt when they lost someone yesterday because of your stupid explosion?”

“Yeah, forget it. This conversation is over.”

“Somb-”

“No. Don’t even try.”

Hana dejectedly looked down. They were way too different for this to work. Sombra cared only about herself while Hana was one of the first to accept her draft into the army, to protect.

She was stupid for wanting to change her, even if just a little.

Sombra was ordering the something called Anti-IF, liquid form and a moment later, paying with bitcoins.

Soon enough the package was delivered to the smallest slot in the wall and they opened the door.

There was half a dozen Talon soldiers waiting for them outside, pointers ready, someone screaming “what about my money?!” in the crowd. They escaped quickly, however, as soon as they heard the warning shots. Somewhere during Sombra took the pistol strapped to her thigh.

Hana didn’t even have time to utter a syllable before she was brutally gripped by one of them; her not yet healed ribs almost cracking under pressure. It appeared Sombra wasn’t considered a traitor because she was left on her own.

“You okay boss?”

“Yeah, sure.  You guys reported yet?”

“No, can’t get a signal down here.”

“In that case…”

Hana blinked and everything went dark. There was a terrifying half a second when she had no idea what was going on. Then gunshots and she was let go, crawling to where she thought the wall was.

She was waiting for Sombra’s scream but it never came. Instead, the light came back on. Talon soldiers dead on the ground.

Sombra runs to her, grips her tight and she feels her stomach flip as they’re pulled back into the car.

“Don’t say I never cared about anyone.”

Despite wanting to vomit from the sudden translocation all she thinks about is what Sombra said right before that.


	6. Chapter 6

They sleep through the drive to the next city.

Another day, another motel. Hana was getting tired of this.

She still accepts the warm bed too tired to think about it extensively.

As soon as Sombra patches her ribs and legs up again and Hana helps her inject the serum, they’re both out like a light.

(Hana dreams of South Korea and her parents and the blood on Sombra’s and her hands but she doesn’t scream or cry at night. She never did.)

(She woke up in the middle of the night to note down information and then slid it back into her shirt as per usual.)

It’s day five and they’re still a long way away from the northernmost part of the county.

They eat, Sombra takes her pills and they’re back on the road, not speaking.

It’s okay but Hana can’t stand it after a few hours, despite Pokémon keeping her occupied.

“What did you mean back then?”

“Back where?”

“You know back in the tunnels.”

“I don’t recall. I was sick, could’ve said anything.”

Sombra was desperately trying to wriggle her way out of this but Hana wasn’t about to let her.

“Don’t bs me. You know what I mean.”

“I… um, well, care about your safety and wellbeing. As my hostage.”

“Right.”

Hana stared her down, hoping she’d crack. She did, eventually.

“I kinda like you? I mean I always do this when I’m near pretty girls don’t worry it’ll pass.”

“What happened to ‘you’re just a job’? Changed your mind so quickly?”

“Uh, yeah. So. Do you like me too?”

She hadn’t seen her act like that in a while. Doesn’t matter.

“No.”

“Oh. Yeah, okay.”

Hana didn’t feel anything but indifference at the moment. Maybe it was a bit cruel to bring it up but at least she could have her revenge this way.

She goes back to playing Pokémon.

* * *

 

They don’t speak for the next few hours. When the car pulls over, Hana’s a bit disoriented because she has no idea why they’re stopping if Sombra’s s asleep and they haven’t reached the north coast yet. She has no idea why they got off the course. Sure this is a coastal town but it’s on the east side of the island, not even close to the northernmost point.

She probably lied about that too.

Hana decides that if she’s sleeping and this is probably the place, she can make it back on her own. She steals her hoodie, puts the hood on and leaves herself one of the cards.  She’s not cruel enough to leave her without anything, though she has little trouble imagining that Sombra could get by without those.

She tells the AI to kindly shut up as it’s reminding her not to mess with the car. Hana doesn’t care. Sombra might have her fancy code she can think her way through but Hana could fix anything she laid her hands on. It doesn’t take longer to destroy it.

She gets into the AI and autopilot panel and demagnetises the drive.  It’s silent for a moment before it boots up and asks where she wants to go. Bingo.

“London, don’t stop.”

She gets out and walks to the nearest clothing store as the car starts driving.

* * *

 

She gets herself clothes appropriate for the weather, medicine, a radio, food and a room in a motel.

She spends most of the day watching TV and playing Pokémon.

The radio she bought was not as good as the one she used meant for surveillance but unfortunately, this was all she had. At least the notebook was still okay.

Aberdeen was a pretty city but she’d rather not go out without a hacker to disrupt the cameras. And then there’s the fact that it’s amazingly cold outside and she’d rather not die of hypothermia.

She’s in the middle of a Pokémon battle when her door makes a click and the next thing she knows she’s pointing her gun at Sombra. Well, damn, there goes her plan.

“I got us food.”

Hana decides to accept, having already eaten the bagel she got herself earlier. They eat the pizza in silence for the most part.

“I erased the footage on the cameras.”

“Mhm.”

“…Did you think it would work?”

“No, but it was worth a try.”

“Aberdeen, then?”

“Yeah.”

“What do you want from Overwatch anyway?”

“I need some data.”

“Don’t you, like, monitor our database or something already?”

“Yeah, but what I want is kept on an entirely different server, I can’t get to it if it’s offline and in a Faraday cage.”

“Mhm.”

“You were right by the way. Doesn’t mean I’ll start caring about anyone else but I think this is enough.”

“You do know that Ayn Rand said the same thing.”

“What?”

“She was a- nevermind. Either way, caring about someone because not seeing them die or cry or whatever else still makes it selfish because ultimately you’re looking after your own happiness , it’s just that the prerequisites are keeping them happy.”

“Isn’t that true about most of the civilisation? I mean, it’s impossible to care about everyone. You can’t save everyone so there must be a cut-off line.”

“I, no, well... yeah, you’re right. But it’s kind of selfish for you to only care about one person other than yourself.”

“Two, actually.”

“Really? Who is it?”

“I’m gonna leave you guessing.”

Hana dissolved into giggles.

“Is it that Gabe of yours?”

“Song Hana, how do you know about this stuff?”

“I’m gonna leave you guessing.”

This was nice, not perfect but nice.

“Yeah, it’s Reyes.”

Hana wasn’t surprised to find out ‘Gabe’ was actually Reaper. She supposed she knew, subconsciously.

They’re lying on the bed, pizza between them, TV turned to an Esports channel (thankfully, no Starcraft II is on).

Sombra watches as Hana continues the Pokémon battle with a smile. She tells her she used to play this a kid and they bond over retro games.

“What was your childhood like?”

Han regrets it right after. She knows that this was insensitive and rude, especially when she knows their parents must have died in a pretty similar way.

“Oh my god, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-”

“No, um, it’s okay. I kind of- it doesn’t matter now.”

“Let’s see, my parents died right after I was born in an Omnic Crisis.”

Hana wants to say something but Sombra mentions for her to let her continue.

“I kinda lived on my own in the house they left, snagged a laptop from some tourist and just did stuff. I liked knowing how programs work and I liked getting ahead in games without luck so I just got better and better. Bought some makeshift hacking gloves and you know went into police departments and played a nice little girl while hacking them and giving the info to the gang that took me in.”

“How old were you?”

“Seven.”

“Holy shit.”

“And yeah, well, I was the best but still got into some trouble and had to run. Got my implants for hacking on the go and just never seen Dorado since. I’ve just been going around, trying my best to survive and come out on top.”

“Sombra-”

“Sofia. My name is Sofia.”

Hana felt unexplainable joy at how much she trusted her. She gripped Sombr-Sofia’s hand and smiled softly.

“Sofia, I’m sorry.”

She returned the squeeze with one of her own.

“It’s okay.”

“So, I suppose you already know all the details about my childhood but it’s only fair I share mine too.”

“Okay.”

“I was born in Busan and it was nice and happy at first. I spend my days at PC Bangs, playing old games, my parents nagging me about that every day, haha. I won some tournaments, we were happy and everything went well until the omnics emerged from the sea. We lived right by the coast, it was a bloodbath. My parents died, Busan got evacuated. I got a gaming scholarship and continued to play, ended up fucking up some tournaments at first from all the pressure and because my parents… Anyway I told myself to suck it up, became a Starcraft II champion three years in a row. Got an offer from MEKA, killed some omnics and once the crisis was over I kinda betrayed my own country to join Overwatch. ”

“Not much people to save, huh?”

“Yeah, just endless ads and promotions. That’s not why I became a soldier.”

She squeezes her hand and Hana thinks that she could come to love this girl if they had more time. But they won’t but that doesn’t matter either. Not when she’s leaning over her face, a question in her eyes. Hana nods.

Sofia isn’t perfect and isn’t like her at all but she matters to Hana and that’s all that counts.

It’s sweet and chaste and gentle, something Hana imagines Sofia to be but not Sombra. It’s the sort of kiss you pour words and promises you can’t keep into.

Sometime during, they kick off the rest of the pizza of the ground and giggle at the thud.

It isn’t long till the kisses turn much hungrier, less precise.

And it isn’t long till they undress.

Hana feels like she’s dying, like she’s baring the rest of her soul as she undresses. It’s not the physical nakedness she’s nervous about – they lost inhibitions around each other on day one – it’s the trust she’s placing in Sofia. She pulls off her underwear and at the same time, she entrusts her with her heart, hoping she won’t hurt her.

She never cried during casual flings with girls before but this isn’t casual or a fling or anything. Sofia wipes her tears and holds her and doesn’t hurt her.

She does the same for her, thereafter.

* * *

 

She presses her forehead to Hana’s and they just stay like that.

Hana feels like she’s gazing straight into her soul but, for the first time, she’s not afraid; instead she returns it, wanting to possess her secrets just as much as Sofia possesses hers.

For a moment, it feels like she’s known her forever and she’ll continue to long after they stop looking into each other’s eyes.

But everything has its price and so does this.

Hana doesn’t know if she’ll be able to live without her, she doesn’t want to but this, too, will come to an end. Worse even, she doesn’t know how she’ll look her in the eyes after gazing into them like this today. So she doesn’t; and kisses her like it’s their last time together, like their world is ending.

She hopes she figures out what she means. She hopes she forgives her for what she’s going to do.

* * *

 

She doesn’t want to think of a world without Sofia.

So she doesn’t.

She doesn’t think at all.

* * *

 

 Hana wakes up to the TV still on. It’s kind of ironic that she had sex while it was on an Esports channel.

She doesn’t bother waking Sofia up and goes to take a shower. It’s nice and warm and suddenly, she doesn’t want to leave at all. But she knows she has to and whatever she and Sofia had has to come to an end, too. She might be happy at the moment but she knows what’s waiting for her. She can’t procrastinate this; she never was one to, anyway.

Here it is, day seven. The day it all ends.

As soon as she’s out of the shower, Sofia is all over her, kisses and all.

“Morning.”

“Hi.”

“You going out somewhere?”

“Yeah, food.”

“Stay, conejita, I’ll order.”

“No, I think I need some fresh air.”

“…Okay.”

Sofia looks a bit sad as she dresses and Hana doesn’t want to see it so she turns around.

“Hana, everything okay?”

“…Yeah.”

She doesn’t look at her, afraid that she’ll change her mind.

* * *

 

When she comes back, the TV is filled with cameras and Hana smiles knowing that Sofia was keeping her off of them. (And probably checking if she’s coming back at all.)

She got them bagels with hummus and warm tea. They eat, the TV back on Esports, Sofia already in her clothes. (She’s kind of honoured to know that beneath those ripped skinny jeans, combat boots and all those piercings there’s a girl who is even more disgustingly sweet than she is. Even if she’s still an asshole, most of the time.)

Sofia doesn’t want to leave. (Hana doesn’t want to either but she has to.)

“Let’s go.”

“…Yeah.”

In the short time she was away she managed to realise that Hana will be leaving today and that she’ll be letting her go. But she knows it’s inevitable and that this is how it goes.

Hana will never know this but Sofia has no idea how this happened but she’s happy. Hana will never realise this but Sofia had no plans to double cross her.

Hana won’t know about this until much later but Sofia loves her.

Hana, however, doubts that unsaid words would change anything.

So they gather their things and prepare to get to the warehouse. Overwatch is picking her up in an hour.

As soon as they walk out they’re yanked into a sleek limousine and roughly sat opposite Reaper.

“Just what do you think you’re doing, Sombra?” (Hana has never felt more afraid in her life. She grips Sofia’s hand.)

“I.. We…”

(Reaper knows what’s up and their interlocked hands only confirm his suspicions.)

“Do you know,” he starts, voice like someone who’s been smoking cigarettes all their life “how much it took for me to keep Reymond off of you two?”

“Aww, Gabe, thanks.”

Hana nearly doesn’t believe her eyes as Sofia hugs the nightmare incarnate.

“Get off of me and stop this foolishness. Widowmaker wanted to tell on you the day this started so you’re really lucky I was there to stop her.”

“Aww, Spidey never liked me a lot.”

“Sombra.”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry.” She smirks. “Dad.”

Hana wants to escape in case Reaper decides to murder them in cold blood for Sofia’s behaviour.

“I don’t care what you two are planning; you have to be back by tomorrow or I’ll let them get you both.”

“Sure thing.”

“Gabe?”

He grunts.

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, get out.”

Hana decides to throw in a ‘thank you’ right before the doors slam before them.

“So, uh, are you two usually like this?

“Yep, Gabe’s a big, mean old man but he’s a softie with a heart of gold.”

Even Overwatch seemed normal compared to Talon, right now.

“Tell Morrison to visit him sometime. He has too much pride to do it himself.”

“Morrison?”

“He goes by Soldier:76 now, I believe.”

“Wait, what? Holy shit.”

Sofia could tell her that pigs could fly and she’d believe her after this.

* * *

 

“Yeah so, remember, they gotta think you’re my hostage and blah blah, so I’ll just hold my gun to your head, maybe tie you up a little.”

“Mhm.”

They were in the warehouse; they still had 15 minutes till the exchange.

They decided to leave the binds and gun for later, engaging in other activities.

(Hana would never suspect that she’d end up in an abandoned warehouse somewhere in Scotland, making out with the enemy right before she fake gives her out to her employers as a hostage.)

(Hana hoped she’d forgive her.)

The heard the boat.

Hana took it as her cue to lift her pistol.

“Can I visit?”

Sombra was knocked out cold and Hana tied her hands, waving at Pharah from behind the dusty window.


	7. Chapter 7

Hana “D.va” Song is a legend in Overwatch the moment she steps onto the boat. It took Tracer 2 minutes to tell the whole base about how heroic and brave she was, how she stood up to the evil, dangerous hacker and knocked her out at the right moment.

Everyone on the radio is congratulating her.

(Hana doesn’t want this, any of this. It’s all a big fat lie and she wants them to know that Sofia isn’t bad at all.)

(But she doesn’t tell them. She swallows her regrets down, smiles awkwardly, gives Pharah the notebook and tells them that the girl’s name is Sombra and she doesn’t know anything else.)

Mercy is fussing over her wounds and badly bandaged cuts. Hana wants her to stop because it feels so wrong when it’s someone other than Sofia.

Soldier:76 is waiting on the big boat. He welcomes her back with a hug and Hana feels like crying. Almost everyone came to her rescue and they all care.

She watches as Sofia wakes up, her eyes asking a silent ‘why?’.

She tries to mouth ‘I’m sorry’ because there’s people all around but before she has the chance, Sofia vanishes into thin air, translocating back into the warehouse, she guessed. The hurt and betrayal on her face made her want to turn back time so she could fix this.

Tracer shouts out a ‘did you see that? That was my tech!’. Everyone is a bit sour but they’re just happy that Hana’s alive and mostly well.

(Hana wants to go back and say sorry.)

* * *

 

 Hana lives on. They’re back in Gibraltar and all she ever does is mope around.

(Overwatch sends some wannabe rookie spy to continue her efforts. She tells him not to go into the bathroom.)

Everyone chalks it up to her recent ‘traumatic events’ and eventually leave her alone when she declines food and games for the umpteenth time. Even Lucio and Genji, who never let her sulk alone.

Hana sends violet flowers - as violet as Sofia’s eyes - to Talon, no return address, cards saying sorry. She stares into cameras and makes a sad face, a heart with her hands.

(Mercy catches her once, Hana doesn’t want to explain but she knows Angela has an idea because she tells her to be patient and wait.)

She talks to Soldier:76, tells him Gabriel is alive. She leaves him to process it.

One day, she sneaks into Winston’s lab, asks Athena if she can leave a text file in her database and keep it a secret from everyone else. She names it Sombra.txt and writes that she’s sorry (and also, that she loves her).

They haven’t spoken in almost a week. Hana doesn’t know if she should stop or not; Sofia didn’t any signs of acknowledgement.

She decides to try and fight on.

* * *

 

Day 8 never came.

* * *

 

It’s been officially a week. A whole week of waiting for an answer or at least some sort of sign. Even a “Fuck you, asshole” card would be better than this.

When she feels arms around her middle she screams. Sofia is quicker, however, and muffles it with her hand.

“Listen to me very carefully. You’re gonna lead me back to your room, say whatever you have to say and if you’re lucky we’ll make out. We clear?”

Hana grinned and nodded enthusiastically. Breakfast could wait.

She leads her to her room by the hand, sneaking around the corners. One time, they nearly run into Fareeha and Angela, Sofia vanishing from sight despite their hands still interlocked.

It’s kind of hard to look them in the eyes when Hana’s running and giggling at the same time. She throws them a “gotta go!” and Mercy’s “but breakfast, Hana!” fall deaf on her ears.

As soon as they’re in her room, Hana braces herself for saying sorry and saying things she hasn’t said yet.

She’s happy that this isn’t an end; that this is just a beginning.

* * *

 

Much, much later when they’re lying in bed and the sun starts to set, Hana decides to tell her what she hadn’t.

(Mercy, a true angel, left a big portion of today’s lunch outside her room. Hana drags it into the room and they’re both overjoyed, even if Angela’s cooking isn’t that good.)

(“Remember when we first met?”

“Yeah.”

“You put a gun to my head and whispered stuff into my ear. That was kinda hot. ”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Hana smiles, predatory, leaning over her.

“Would you like a repeat performance?”

“Definitely.”)

(Lucio and Genji are, definitely, not angels. Hana couldn’t get them to leave while she was trying to eat her new girlfriend out. Rude.)

* * *

 

“So, uhm, that was nice.”

“That’s one way to put it, conejita.”

“What does that even mean? You always say it.”

“It means little bunny, bunny.”

“Excuse me, I’m not much shorter than you.”

“Shut up, it’s a term of endearment.”

“Aww. So, in other words, you liked me from day one.”

“No. But then I called you that because you were an annoying gamer grill.”

“Excuse me?”

“Your online persona leaves an impression, you know.”

“You know I’m supposed to dumb myself down for streams, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. Still.”

“You’re my 자기, then.”

“Does that mean something bad? Because if yes then I’m leaving you and taking your clothes.”

“No, it doesn’t. It means baby, basically.”

“Aww. If only your fanboys saw you like this.”

Hana glared as Sofia.

“That’s cute.”

And there’s the boop.

“But in all seriousness, I’m sorry and I hope you’ll forgive me and I,”

She took a breath.

“사랑해요.”

Sofia seemed to understand.

“Te amo tambien, Hana.”

She doesn’t have to kiss her like their world is ending; she can kiss her however she wants to because this was only the beginning and they had all the time in the world.

(She wants to know everything about her, her favourite colour, meal, scent, if she’s a waffle or a pancake person, she wants to ask her to join Overwatch, she wants to introduce her to her friends and tell her Spanish is hot and she should use it more often, to take her to Dorado and visit Busan with her and how she heard her talk on the radio from the building across but it all can wait.)

* * *

 

Hana gets kisses and ‘I love you’s on Christmas and on New Year’s Eve and on her 21st birthday and she couldn’t be happier to be alive.


End file.
